Archive for August, 2016|Monthly archive page

As many Turkish scholars are looking for jobs abroad, I hear a lot about that priority is given to those who have residency in the university’s host country.

UK universities seem to be particularly notorious about this. If two candidates have similar evaluations, priority given to the one who has not residency problems even if the other is slightly better. That’s one case I have particularly observed.

UK would prefer EU nationals over non-Europeans but I guess after the Brexit even that will be harder and for scholars from Turkey etc this will be even more difficult.

I will report about this particular angle when I have more details.

In looking for jobs abroad, current parameters of political economy of academy is felt too. Even if you believe you have done good stuff in the past, everything is boiled down to the number of citation-indexed articles or funded projects. Well life is never fair;)

Social media has grown from friend communication service to all-encompassing digital life tool. During this digital evolution, journalists who were early adopters and used social sites for both gathering information and broadcasting content have become a core part of many platforms. A white paper from Cision, a provider of media management solutions, examines how journalists are using social media in 2016.

Though I’ve published more than 2,500 articles on The Next Web, this is the first oneI’ve written about something that’s mine. A couple of months ago, a change in strategy meant venturing into the world of freelance work as an editor, tech journalist and media consultant to startups that don’t know where to start with approaching the media. What I quickly realized is that not having a full-time job meant I could start my own side projects that in turn gives me the opportunity to become a better tech journalist and editor. It also gives me the ability to truly live the…

“Shared media” is outperforming traditional digital advertising by 10 times. So what exactly is shared media, and why is it so successful?

In traditional media buying, the advertiser buys audience exposure from a publisher, broadcaster or ad network. The publisher or ad network shows the ad to its audience and is paid by the advertiser according to the number of people reached.

By now you’ll have heard that after 14 years, Gawker.com will publish no more. Univision, the new owner of Gawker.com’s sibling sites, likely decided it didn’t want to deal with the Gawker Media flagship’s baggage. Gawker’s writers are being folded into other sites like Deadspin, Gizmodo, and Jezebel, or into other parts of Univision (though there’s no guarantee many of them will want to stay).

Josh Laurito offers a fascinating look at the internals of a top-flight blog. Gawker, bankrupted by the Hulk Hogan lawsuit verdict and having sold off all its blogs (except Gawker.com itself) to Univision, is to cease publication this week.

Arrested Özgür Gündem daily Publishing Consultant Board member, novelist and columnist Aslı Erdoğan has noted that she had not been given her medication in the prison and was being held in a solitary confinement cell. Her attorneys have objected to her arrest.

In the campaign launched on social media to act in solidarity with arrested novelist Aslı Erdoğan, many well-known figures are expressing their support with their photos carrying banners reading “None of us are outside if Aslı Erdoğan is inside”.

Prize-winning novelist Aslı Erdoğan, who was arrested over alleged links to the outlawed PKK on Aug. 20, has said she is being treated in a way that will leave “permanent physical damage” in the prison she serves in Istanbul’s Bakırköy

In other news:

Since the attempted coup, the government has ordered more than a hundred outlets to close and arrested 48 journalists

Turkey has intensified its crackdown on the media since last month’s attempted coup, with rights groups decrying a wave of decrees that have turned the country into the world leader in locking up journalists.

Turkey blocked access to three social media sites for seven hours on Thursday. On the night of Aug. 25, at 11:07pm local time, Turkish ISPs started throttling access to Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube: Confirmed: Twitter, Facebook & YouTube blocked

Elements in the Turkish military with ties to the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO) worked to stall Turkey’s operation in the northern Syrian city of Jarablus for over two years, a senior official has told the Hurriyet Daily News

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has declared total war against terrorism, in the wake of a recent terror attack carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the southeastern city of Cizre, saying the nation would “bear their pain and continue to fight against terror.”

Aerial footage of the burning wreckage of buildings following the bombing of a police checkpoint in Cizre, a town close to Turkey’s borders with Syria and Iraq. Kurdish rebels were behind the blast, according to Turkey’s state-run news agency Anadolu

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has slammed German news magazine Der Spiegel over a report suggesting that Ankara was equally targeting the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the military operation launched against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadist group

The bomb-laden vehicle suicide attack by outlawed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which killed 11 police officers and wounded 78 people in the Cizre district of the southeastern province of Şırnak was condemned by foreign diplomats and countries on Aug. 26, both through social media and in official statements

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has expelled four of its district mayors over suspected links to the movement of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, said to be behind last month’s failed coup attempt

Turkey’s economy ministries and a number of top businesspeople have decided to launch a comprehensive PR campaign to try to improve the country’s image abroad, following a series of negative recent events

The Turkish military, which has entered Syrian town of Jarablus as part of the Euphrates Shield operation to back Syrian rebels sweep Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants off the border, hit the YPG by artillery fire

Civilians are paying the price for the competing interests of parties to the conflictIt is hard to anticipate whether Turkey’s unprecedented military incursion into Syria this week will change the dynamics of the multiple wars that have ravaged the region and put civilians through hell. If things already seemed complicated in the Middle East, they may have just become even more so. What started on Wednesday ranks as the largest Turkish military operation inside Syrian territory since the civil war began five years ago. A dozen tanks, reportedly followed by a bus transporting Syrian rebels, rolled into northern Syria to drive Islamic State forces from the town of Jarablus, one of their last footholds on the Turkish-Syrian border. Today Turkey sent more tanks in and told the YPG Kurdish armed group it had one week to retreat from the border areas.

As an active member of the anti-Daesh coalition, and being far from indifferent, Turkey’s substantial contributions to the prevention of supplies and curbing the flow of foreign fighters in line with the international efforts are a well-known fact (Turkey’s leaders sat back as Isis took hold. Now its people are paying the price, 23 August). Turkey has participated in the coalition’s military campaign planning from day one, and has allowed its airbases and airspace to be used by coalition aircraft for both combat and non-combat roles, including intelligence gathering and personnel recovery. Moreover, Turkey has been striking Daesh targets since the beginning through air, artillery and other assets, and has eliminated more than 1,300 Daesh elements in Syria and Iraq. Turkey’s efforts to clear Daesh from its borders and ultimately defeat this threat in its close neighbourhood will continue unabated. This must be evident from the operation launched today by the Turkish armed forces.

Joe Biden reassured Ankara, but it is unclear how Washington’s Kurdish proxies will react to his demand that they step back

Turkish tanks have moved rapidly through the Syrian town of Jarablus on Wednesday, ousting Islamic State from one of its last border strongholds – but the most important outcome in Ankara’s eyes was beating the US-backed Kurdish fighters in a race to seize the surrounding area.

Erdoğan’s purge of ex-allies blamed for failed coup bid has its critics, but many Turks remember the ruthless rise of the cleric’s followers

In 2008, his last year of military high school in the western city of Bursa, Mehmet Koç noticed that things were changing in the Turkish army. The school had just been handed over from the army to the air force, and a new group of commanders took over the education of the cadets.

The German military is preparing for a possible withdrawal of six Tornado reconnaissance jets from Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base given Ankara’s continued refusal to allow German lawmakers to visit the facility, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Aug. 25

State Department did not specify what the Turkish cleric was being sought for

Joe Biden expected to meet Erdoğan on Wednesday in wake of foiled plot

The US has confirmed it has received a formal extradition request from Ankara for the Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, but not over the July coup attempt the Turkish authorities has accused Gülen of orchestrating.

Photographs showing top commanders, including Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar, being forcibly abducted by pro-coup soldiers at the military headquarters, was broadcast by Turkish broadcaster Haber 7 on Aug. 23

After exhaustion of domestic remedies upon Constitutional Court dismissing the suit regarding Roboski massacre, the case has been brought before the European Court of Human Rights with application by 281 claimants.

A third bridge over the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul was opened on Aug. 26 with a ceremony attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and other top officials, including former President Abdullah Gül, former PM Ahmet Davutoğlu and Parliament Speaker İsmail Kahraman

Istanbul’s culture and tourism hub, İstiklal Avenue, has been experiencing scores of store closures, with owners citing financial hardships and lowering revenues stemming from larger problems which have impacted the popular street, including terror attacks and a series of protests

Unless we are willing to live with the discomfort of what is different and challenging, we are inviting a world of needless incivilities and lack of understanding.

Demonstrators stage a beach party outside the French Embassy, in Knightsbridge, London, in protest at the French government’s decision to ban women from wearing burkinis. PAimages/Dominic Lipinski. All rights reserved.Last week, the mayor of Oye-Plage in France was so disturbed by seeing a woman in a burkini on the beach that he is planning to ban such a garb from the beaches of his own town. This reminded me of some of my own experiences in the past that may just be relevant to the current debates over the burkini in Cannes, Marseille and other beaches in France.

Reduced to symbols of national identity, women are caught in the center of a tug-of-war in which any amount of violence, of coercion and regulation of their bodies is justified in order to win the battle.

Chris Carlson/AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.Approximately two years ago in Turkey, there was an odd case in which AKP-allied Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc made a statement declaring that it was indecent for women to laugh in public or, presumably, in mixed company.

The official French response to repeated terrorist attacks in recent years continues to focus myopically on symbolic measures, embodied in a broadening sartorial crackdown on devout Muslim women. But France doesn’t need fewer burkinis; it needs more jobs and better domestic intelligence.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to seek the presidency again in 2017, and his emphasis on the supposed threat of Islam to national identity, should not be surprising. Fear is a powerful weapon, and Sarkozy, like Donald Trump, is eager to wield it.

Britain, Europe and, indeed, the United States have an interest in limiting the damage from a decade of tortuous Brexit negotiations that will probably be dominated by disruption and disinvestment, writes Michael Leigh.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday officially announced his candidacy for the 2017 presidential elections with his book Tout pour la France (All for France). In November he will run in the primaries organised by the French right. Commentators warn of the dangers of voting a candidate with catchy slogans and a populist programme into the Elysée Palace.

The leaders of Italy, France and Germany insisted Monday (22 August) that Britain’s shock decision to quit the European Union would not kill the bloc. Merkel suggested she could be flexible over EU budget rules, as Rome grapples to kickstart its stalling economy.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania celebrated the 25th anniversary of their independence on the weekend. After the failed August Putsch of 1991 the Soviet Union recognised the sovereignty of these three states, which had already declared independence in 1990 following the Singing Revolution. Many columnists take the anniversary as an opportunity to take stock of the progress made since then.